Republican candidate Bob Turner has won the special election to finish the term of resigned-in-disgrace Representative Anthony Weiner (D). This is a historic victory, against a Democrat (David Weprin) with twenty years of elected experience and good personal popularity numbers, in a very Democratic district (thrice the number of registered Democrats as registered Republicans, and held by a Democrat for over ninety years). There’s only one reason why Turner even had a chance, much less managed to win decisively: Barack Obama. The special election was turned into a referendum on Obama’s jobs performance (and overt hostility to Israel), leading the electorate to crossover and vote against the Democrat to “send a message” to the President. There is no other way to interpret the results; but Lord knows the Democratic spinmeisters are still trying.

Naturally, this being a race that the Democrats really didn’t want to lose (because of the implications for Obama, and for next year’s elections) – Ah, who the Hell am I kidding? Because this was a race containing a Democrat candidate, there was naturally chicanery involved. Non-regular (absentee and provisional) ballots are being impounded by a court order because of “gross incompetence” on behalf of the Board of Elections, citing “absentee ballots being mailed to dead people and people who did not request them.” Fortunately, Turner’s support was not only above the margin of error, it was also above the margin of Democratic fraud.

In an unrelated story, Shekina Pena of Lansing, Michigan, was charged with registering voters by giving them marijuana.

CNN — A woman who operates a medicinal marijuana clinic in Lansing, Michigan, has been charged with breaking the state’s election law after allegedly doling out free marijuana to those who registered to vote, officials said Tuesday. Shekina Pena, 34, was charged Monday with a misdemeanor after authorities said she tried to influence voters with pot, considered a “valuable consideration,” according to a statement from Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette. … Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson argued that Pena’s intent was clear. “They offered their customers marijuana in exchange for voter registration. They also supplied a slate of their preferred candidates. This goes beyond election shenanigans.” …

Michigan Election Law prohibits the provision of anything of value in order to induce or influence the manner of voting (MCL 168.931(1)(a)). Such violations are misdemeanors punishable by up to 90 days in jail and/or a $500 fine.

I think Colorado only got one mention in my “Grand Theft Democracy” series posted around the 2010 election; but I’d like to believe (or hope) that election crimes have consequences, so it’s good to see some follow-up happening to go after people (or conditions) which contributed to the massive (and almost entirely Democratic) fraud that happened in 2010, with an eye to reducing the chicanery in 2012. After all, some people have described the vote fraud of 2010 as simply a warm-up practice run for Obama’s 2012 campaign.

The Hill — Republicans on the House Administration Committee want to shore up voter registration rules in the wake of a Colorado study that found as many as 5,000 non-citizens in the state took part in last year’s election. Rep. Gregg Harper (R-MS), the panel’s chairman, called the study “a disturbing wake-up call” that should cause every state to review its safeguards to prevent illegal voting. “We simply cannot have an electoral system that allows thousands of non-citizens to violate the law and vote in our elections. We must do more to protect the integrity of our electoral processes,” Harper added. Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler, a Republican, told the panel that his department’s study identified nearly 12,000 people who were not citizens but were still registered to vote in Colorado. Of those non-citizen registered voters, nearly 5,000 took part in the 2010 general election in which Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet narrowly defeated Republican John Buck.

Of course, we know why the GOP is really looking to make sure that only those who are eligible to vote are allowed to vote – raaaaacism!! At least, that’s what we can be expected to hear repeatedly for the next two years (and beyond).

Michigan: “Two former leaders of the Oakland County Democratic Party are facing a total of nine felonies for allegedly forging election paperwork to get fake Tea Party candidates on November’s ballot.” (H/T: Weasel Zippers) The two great things about this new item, and the one that follows, is that their attempt failed, and that legal action is actually being brought against the alleged attempted perpetrators of Grand Theft: Democracy. (Also, that these are state charges, not federal; or else the DOJ would have already killed these investigations.)

Nevada: Rory Reid, the son of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) – who, like Hillary Clinton during her run for the Senate, was afraid to use his last name during the campaign – is under investigation for “creating 90 different PACs to circumvent campaign contribution limits” (H/T: Weasel Zippers). It didn’t help Rory, who still lost the Nevada gubernatorial race; but it shows that he takes after his father in both honesty and intelligence given that “The red flag for [Nevada Secretary of State Ross] Miller was the fact [Rory] Reid set up 90 political action committees all registered at the same Las Vegas address.“

Wisconsin: The Democrat fleebaggers’ attempt to ignore the 2010 elections failed (Whatever happened to “we won” and “elections have consequences”? As always, these things only apply to Republicans), so now the Democrats are attempting to overturn the 2010 election results by recalling as many Republicans as possible. To be fair, there are also recall movements against some Democrats as well; but, again to be fair, the Democrats in question were guilty of contempt of the Senate and dereliction of duty when they ran and hid in a neighboring state. In any event, both sides are collecting signatures for recall petitions, but only one side (the side without the union thugs) is playing by the rules. (more…)

This past weekend, citizens from across Texas held a summit in Houston to help protect the future integrity of the electoral process. Called “True the Vote,” this amalgam of tea party groups and interested citizens met to learn about how they can fight voter fraud when their governments won’t. … Deputy Assistant Attorney General Julie Fernandes instructed the Department of Justice Voting Section that federal laws requiring voter rolls to be free of ineligible voters won’t be enforced. Former Voting Section Chief Christopher Coates testified that Fernandes and other Obama appointees spiked at least eight investigations into states with voter roll problems. The Obama DOJ hasn’t brought a single case to require a state to remove dead and ineligible felon voters from the rolls. Fernandes spiked these investigations because she is ideologically opposed to enforcing laws protecting election integrity – and she relishes the partisan benefits of inaction. …

Well, of course the Obama Department of “Justice” isn’t going after voter fraud. Not only do the Democrats benefit from it, but they (up to and including Obama himself) work hand-in-hand with the unions and other groups (ACORN) who perpetrate voter fraud. One of George Soros’ little projects was one to get corruption-friendly Democrats (but I repeat myself) elected to the Secretary of State position in as many of the fifty-seven states as possible because they’re the ones who certify the vote. Had the 2010 midterms been conducted without any fraud of malfeasance, the GOP wave would have been even higher.

New York: Oh, for the love of God. More shenanigans are being reported by Legal Insurrection:

Traditionally Republican, the State Senate moved over to the Democrats in 2008, giving Democrats complete control of both houses of the state legislature and the Governor’s office for the first time since the New Deal. In the 2010 mid-terms, however, Republicans made a comeback, and are on the verge of taking back the State Senate. This will have important implications for redistricting. There are a small number of contested races, however. … Two new voting machines were located last night in Buffalo, according to Sen.-elect Mike Gianaris, a Democratic attorney helping his party’s efforts in ballot counting. Incumbent Democratic Sen. Antoine Thompson trails GOP challenger Mark Grisanti by 821 votes, but Gianaris said the new voting machines and how they’ve been handled are a “total disaster” and “complete mess,” adding that lawyers for Thompson are considering legal action that might force a complete recount of paper ballots optically scanned by the machines. … Democrats must win Thompson’s seat, as well as seats held by Sens. Suzi Oppenheimer and Craig Johnson, to maintain a 32-30 majority in the chamber. Oppenheimer is leading her GOP challenger, but Johnson is trailing. …

Additionally, in NY-1 (one of the remaining disputed Congressional races), a hand recount of the votes is showing a “startlingly different total” than the original vote totals recorded by optical scanners:

NBC — When [Democratic Congressman Tim Bishop] went to bed election night, he had a more than thirty four hundred vote lead over [Republican challenger Randy] Altschuler; but, after the numbers were checked late last week, Bishop’s lead vanished. Altschuler now holds a 383 vote advantage. Officials from the Suffolk County Board of Elections refused comment on the cause of the vote count mistakes – but, both Altschuler himself and the Bishop campaign blamed “human error.” … The new computerized voting machines appear to have played a role in the mistakes. Poll workers unfamiliar with the new machines may have simply misread or misreported the numbers coming from them after the polls closed, according to the Bishop and Altschuler camps. Thirty to forty percent of the election districts in this Congressional race had vote count errors, according to a county source. There were similar problems in a tight state Assembly race pitting incumbent Democrat Marc Alessi against Republican Daniel Losquadro. In that race, a forty vote Losquadro lead on election night has ballooned to a more than 890 votes.

Isn’t it amazing how these errors always seem to favor the Democrats? (H/T: Jazz, Hot Air)

Illinois: Another update as incumbent Representative Melissa Bean (D-IL8) has conceded the race to challenger Joe Walsh (R). This puts the GOP net gain in the House up to sixty-one. The final margin was about 300 votes.

Before the midterm election, the open-borders group (funded by Soros, SEIU, and the usual prog suspects) sent out illegal alien canvassers to drum up Democrat votes in Washington state. … My friend and Washington state blogger/watchdog Stefan Sharkansky – who has successfully exposed election fraud before – scoured campaign finance records and found that OAV apparently failed to file as a registered political committee. He has sent a formal complaintto the state Public Disclosure Commission. … Although the group was clearly raising and spending massive sums to intervene in state election campaigns, it didn’t register with the PDC or report its receipts and expenditures. Major illegal. … Nor is it registered with the FEC. Some might wonder whether the group is protected under Citizens United. Not from Washington’s state disclosure laws. From federal disclosure only if it’s genuinely qualified to operate as a 501(c)(4), which looks doubtful.

Of course, using illegal aliens to canvass voters is just a first step to converting all of those illegal aliens into Democratic voters – that is, those that aren’t already voting for Democrats anyway despite their illegal status.

…the University of Minnesota chapter of Organizing for America, a DNC-chartered organization, … allegedly attempted to flood voting stations with illegitimate voters through the “vouching” law in the state. The organization Minnesota Majority has repeatedly warned about the vouching process, which allows each Minnesota voter to get up to 15 people access to provisional ballots and same-day registration in each election. …

No ID is required for those fifteen people, as long as they have one registered voter to “vouch” for them.

One of the few voter fraud stories that hasn’t shown up (yet) this election cycle is college students double-voting – both in their home state, and in the state where they attend college. I guess, given the collapse in their enthusiasm for the Obamessiah, that most college students could hardly be motivated to even vote once, much less twice.

Alaska: Joe Miller (R), in the last Senate race yet to be resolved, is suing the state to enforce the “exact spelling” rule for write-in ballots. (documents)

Election law calls for write-in ballots to have the oval filled in and either the candidate’s last name or name as it appears on a declaration of candidacy written in. But election officials, pointing to prior case law, have said they plan to use discretion… (emphasis added)

California: In the still-undecided House district 11, David Harmer (R) has claimed irregularities and is suing Contra Costa County to be allowed to challenge the signatures on vote-by-mail ballots.

Connecticut: “Sanctuary cities” New Haven and Hartford issued ID cards to illegal aliens, “ostensibly to enable them to use public services such as the library”. These ID cards also allowed the holders to register to vote. Governor-elect Dannel Malloy (D) beat opponent Tom Foley (R) by only 5,810 votes; New Haven alone issued about 15,000 of those ID cards.

Illinois: I noted previously the delays and obstruction Senator-elect Mark Kirk (R-IL) faces in assuming his place in Congress for the lame-duck session. The Washington Examinerrecommends a filibuster until he is seated, and notes that Senators-elect Chris Coons (D-DE) and Joe Manchin (D-WV), winners of special elections to fill Joe Biden and Robert Byrd’s seats, will take office as soon as the session begins. (H/T: Occasional Reader, C2)

New Jersey: A city councilman from Atlantic City is facing charges – for the second time in five years – of using bogus absentee votes in an attempt to rig an election (for Mayor). Guess the party.

Unfortunately, ever since Bush-Gore 2000 (and more recently, Franken-Colemen 2008) we’re no strangers to long recounts in close elections, where neither side wants to concede as long as there’s the chance that the final count will go their way (or can be made to go their way). As of this writing, one Senate seat (Alaska) and seven House seats (California-11, California-20, Illinois-8, Kentucky-6, New York-25, Texas-27, and Virginia-11) are still being decided. The Alaskan Senate race is interesting in that the two main contenders are the Republican candidate and the former Republican write-in candidate who lost the GOP primary; the Democratic candidate is a distant third. The House races are interesting in that all of the incumbents are Democrats, so any further victories by the GOP will be net gains to increase the Republican majority in the House. You may recall from last year that “Senator” Al Franken wasn’t sworn in until July; so even if the Democrats can’t steal some of those close seats (and, to be fair, about half of the House seats are likely to be legitimate victories for the Democrats), they can still tie them up as long as possible to keep more members of the GOP from being sworn in.

New York: Incumbent Representative Dan Maffei (D-NY25), who trails his opponent Ann Marie Buerkle (R) but about seven hundred votes, is having his campaign staffers call absentee voters and asking them who they voted for. Buerkle released a statement which says, in part:

It is regrettable that this action is underway prior to those absentee votes being tabulated by county election officials. While the reasons for this effort are unclear – many agree it could be an attempt by some to identify who each person voted for in an effort to disqualify certain eligible ballots from being counted. I would like the public to know that my campaign is not connected to this current effort. Further, no American – in Upstate New York or anywhere – is in anyway under obligation to provide information to anyone on how he or she voted in any election, including my own. … If anyone is contacted in this effort please know that your vote is privileged, and under no circumstances should an individual be pressured in to revealing how their vote was cast. If you are contacted, ask them to provide their full name, for whom they work, why they are seeking this information and if you are required to provide this information.

This appears to be unprecedented, and likely part of a gambit to mount a legal challenge against the results once they are all tabulated. (H/T: The Lonely Conservative)

Dead people voting in elections, ballots mysteriously appearing to change the winner at the last minute, these are all old Democratic tricks. In the last year, however, the Democrats have been pioneering new strategies to preserve their super-majority; which they’re still desperately clinging to in the hopes of inflicting upon the country as much last-minute damage as possible during the lame duck session starting next week. You see, even when the Democrats know that a Republican will win, or that a Republican has won, they can still block him from actually taking his seat in a variety of ways.

Massachusetts: Earlier this year, after Scott Brown (R) won the Senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy in, the Senate delayed as long as they could (beyond the period allowed by law!) actually swearing him in, and allowed a number of votes to be held during that period which Brown would have presumably voted against, but wasn’t allowed to. After all, Scott Brown gave the Republicans enough votes to break a cloture and maintain a filibuster, so the Democrats delayed as long as possible letting him actually be seated to do just that.

New York: On March 8, 2010, Eric Massa (D-NY29) resigned his seat in the House of Representatives. The state of New York was supposed to hold a special election to fill that seat; unfortunately (for the Democrats running the state), it looked like the seat would be captured by a Republican. So, Governor David Patterson (D) didn’t call an election and left the seat empty (and the voters of New York’s 29th District unrepresented) for eight months until Election Day last week. The winner was Tom Reed (R), who will be sworn in when the Congress reconvenes next week.

Special elections, like the two cited above, are important because the winner is (or is supposed to be) seated in the Congress immediately, to fill out the remainder of the term of an incumbent who dies or resigns. Most of the candidates who won last week’s elections will not be seated until the new Congress is sworn in next January; but Republicans who won special elections will be able to blunt the Democrats’ last-ditch efforts during the lame duck session… If they aren’t blocked from taking the seats to which they are entitled by law, the Constitution, and the will of the People.

Illinois: Mark Kirk (R) just won the Senate seat which had previously been held by Barack Obama and which had allegedly been up for sale by Governor Rod Blagojevich (D-IL). Kirk won by over 70,000 votes (enough to beat the Chicago “margin of cheating”) and is entitled to be seated immediately when the lame duck session convenes next week. However, state officials are dragging their feet and claiming that they won’t be able to file the paperwork and certify Kirk’s win until after Thanksgiving. (more…)

California: Below is a photo taken by cellphone at the Santa Clara, CA, Registrar of Voters. … It shows a worker wearing a SEIU tee shirt opening envelopes and handling ballots. (H/T: iOwnTheWorld)

Nevada: More and more people are saying that Harry Reid should not be above the law; but it’s questionable how much action Eric Holder’s DOJ will take against rampant Democrat vote fraud (unless the Republican House starts issuing subpoenas and holding feet to the fire).